Art of making dough for bread.



. U D STATES, PATENT ()FFICE WIL IAM s. oonsY AND CHARLES I. conBY', orWASHINGTON, DISTRICT or COL MBIA.

ART OF MAKING DOUGH FOR BREAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 629,239, dated July 18,1899.

Original appiication filed November 19,1897, 8erial No. 659,109. Dividedand this application filed March 3,1899. Serial No;

707,681. (No specimens.)

To all, whom it may concern.- gluten in order that the gas developedshall Be it known that we; WILLIAM S. CORBY be distributed withuniformity throughout and CHARLES I. COREY, citizens of the United thedough mass, so that there may be uni,- States, residingatWVashington,intheDistrict' formity inthe distribution and size of the 5 of Columbia,have invented certain new and pores of the completed bread.

useful Improvements in the Art of Making The present invention relatesto the attain- Dough for Bread, of which the following is a ing of theabove described desiderata by specification. v means of a series ofsteps which insure thatv Itis well known that the flour of wheat they(the desired thorough eommingling of i differs from that of all otherseeds and grains the ingredients and bringing'them mutually 6c in that adough made therefrom is coherent particle by particle into advantageousjuxtato a greater degree than a dough made from position) are reached ata stage anterior to any other flour, and this is due to the gluten anymaterial breaking down or disintegration of the wheat, which when"combined with of the more valuable ingredientsof the dough,

r water formsa tenacious elastic mass. The such as'the proteids, andparticularly the gluten .of wheat owes its peculiar characterglutenmasses; and among the objects of the istics largely to the presence oftwo proteidsubinven tion are to obtain an approximately perstances,known asgliadin and Fglutenin, feet blending of the dough ingredientsbya and it is believed by us to be because of these novel manner ofdough manipulation or treat 20 substances and the peculiarities of thegluten ment, in which it. is subjected to drawing out, into which theyenter as constituents that sheeting, or shredding operations, and,secwheat-flour is so peculiarly adapted for the 0nd, to provide a methodby which all of the making of leavened or fermented bread.Owabove-described desiderata or requirements ing to the coherent natureof the gluten the can be attained at one initial and complete 25 doughformed from wheat-flour can be made operation wherever the materials andcondi- 7 to retain within it the carbonic-acid gas aristions permit-.-

' ingfrom the growth of yeast, and also bodies In order to insure abetter understanding of air to assistin the proper action of the of ourinvention and to distinguish it from dough ingredients. the prior art,we will first describe the steps 0 In the making of atheoretically-perfect which have heretofore been followed in the doughthere are several desiderata: First, manufacture of dough for leavenedbread. every molecule of the gluten-forming con- First. The flour andcertain quantities of stituents contained in the flour should be water,yeast, salt, and other ingredients are provided with an amount of watersu'fficient put into a receptacle either all at one time- 5 to perfectlyhydrate it, and thereby develop as, for instance, in makingwhat areknown the strength of the dough; second, the paras straight doughs-oratdifferent stages ticles of the yeast or other ferment employed in themixing operations-as, for instance, should be uniformly distributedthroughout in making what are known as sponge the dough and be broughtinto contact with doughs-and these ingredients are mixed to a 4.0 thematerials necessary to and under eondicertain extent either by hand ormachine and Y tions favorable to its growth in order that are kneadedinto a somewhat stifi coherent the action of the yeast upon the flourshall be dough. The dough thus made is then put facilitated and that thegas generated shall be into a trough or other receptacle and alloweduniformly distributed throughout the dough to stand for several hours,when it will have 5 mass, and, third, in a perfect dongh,the glubecomepartially raised or leavened' by the 5 ten fully hydrated, as aforesaid,the starch development of the gas under the action of and othermaterials contained in the flour the yeast or other ferment. Up to-thispoint, must be so related to the yeast or other fer: owing to theincomplete combination of the .ment as that practically every particleof the particles of gluten or gluten-forming bodies 50 latter will besurrounded with a coating of with water, there still remainsaconsiderable 10o amount of gluten or gluten-forming bodies which havenot been fully hydrated, and the mass has by no means reached thatglutinous, tenacious, and elastic condition which is theoretically andpractically possible, in view of the amount of gluten-forming bodiescontained in the flour and the amount of water which it is possible forsuch bodies to take up in their complete hydration. Owing to theseconditions the dough is not in the best condition for baking. Further,owing to the incomplete mixingor dissemination of the yeast throughoutthe dough mass in its initial treatment the latter is as yet in nocondition for baking for the reason that it is raised or leav ened atcertain spots only and a large part thereof still remains heavy anddense. In consequence of these conditions further operations becomenecessary.

Second. The next step in the dough-making operation is to knead over themass for the purpose of increasing the strength of the dough, morecompletely disseminating the yeast throughout the mass and opening outthe heavy unleavened portions, so that the yeast may be brought intocontact with these portions, from which it can obtain more sugar toconvert into carbonic-acid gas, and thus increase the quantity of gaswhich causes the raising of the dough. After this operation the dough isallowed to stand for several hours more or until a furtheramount of gasis generated and until the heavy unleavened portions of the dough aregradually leavened.

Third. The next step is to once more subject the dough toa kneadingprocess, so that in the manner already described the leaven may be stillfurther disseminated and the strength of the dough further developed,after which the dough is again allowed to stand and rise. Thisrekneading is subsequently repeated as often as may be necessary untilthe entire mass of dough is brought to such a degree of lightness andstrength that it may safely be divided into loaves and baked, with theexpectation that the bread will be light and wholesome.

The process just described occupies a long time-from seven to twelvehoursand the results attained thereby are only approximately perfect atbest, as may be seen from the irregularities in the size of the cavitiesleft by the gas in the bread, due to the irregular dissemination of theyeast throughout the dough, the incomplete development or hydration ofthe gluten, and the partial breaking down of the tenaciouscharacteristics of the gluten incident to the length of time elapsingbetween the initial mixing and the baking operations, and, as may befurther seen, by the unduly-rapid drying of the baked loaf, due, as webelieve, to the unhydrated gluten in the bread absorbing the moisturefrom the other parts thereof and so robbing them of the moisture thatthey should retain for wholesomeness and palatability.

1n the process just describedthe dough,

both during the initial mixing and kneading operation and the subsequentrekneadin g operations, is maintained during the manipulations to whichthey are subjected in mass condition, being kneaded, pressed together,

squeezed, and thumped, operations which have rendered the completehydration of the gluten or gluten-forming bodies and the perfectdissemination of the yeast or ferment throughout the mass practicallyimpossible, as is uniformly recognized by the trade and by those whohave made a careful study of the bread-making art. It is quite evidentthat the attempts to'reorganize the mass of dough after it is firstmixed or formed into a coherent mass by kneading or treating the doughwhile maintained in mass condition and the thorough mixing andcombination of the ingredients is but imperfectly accomplished even withthe most careful and painstaking treatment, as the tough and tenaciouscondition of the dough makes it impossible to subdivide and mix or blendit by such kneading operations, which operate to press together orsqueeze the dough in mass. The rekneading operations which havebeendescribed cannot therefore uniformly mingle and distribute theimperfectly-leavened portions of the dough or mingle and bring into suchintimate contact as to permit union of the gluten and gluten-formingingredients and the water, so as to insure complete hydration of suchmaterials. The rekneading operations described have been and underpracti cal conditions must be performed by hand and, though necessarilysuperficial in the results attained, and thus imperfect, have beennecessaryin following the old process, as without them the dough cannotbe brought to even the ordinary condition for baking. It

will thus be seen that the theory upon which heretofore the manipulationof dough has proceeded in order to bring it to a condition suitable forbaking has been that the dough must be pressed together, squeezed,thumped, or kneaded while maintained in mass condition in order to mixthe ingredients and disseminate the yeast. o have discovered, however,that decidedly novel and advantageous re sults are attained byproceeding upon another theory of dough manipulationnamely, this, thedrawing out or subdividing of the dough after the first mixing of theingredients to form them into a coherent mass into sheetlike orshred-like submasses or particles and recombining these with the mainmass and repeating these operations rapidly and many times until theentire mass assumes a condition of approXimately-perfect homogeneity.

i/Ve have discovered that the long and tedious process hereinbeforedescribed is wholly unnecessary and that the results obtained from it,while giving a more or less satisfactory sort of bread accordingly ascare and skill are observed in carrying out the process, have never beensuch as are theoretically and practically possible. By our process wenot only very, closely approximate theoretically perfect results, butalso eliminate much of the uncertainty attending the processesheretofore in vogue and which are incident to the individual skill andconscientious-care of those carrying out such process, and we substitutetherefor the uniformity and certainty incident to machine-work results.

One part of our invention consists in a process whereby we are able tosecure at the out-' set and in one initial and complete operation theresults hereinbefore referred to'that is to say, the complete hydrationof the gluten simultaneously with the bringing of the yeast intocomplete contact with the gas-producing elements by perfectly mixing ordisseminating it throughout the dough as the latter is produced and thecomplete surrounding of the yeast particles thus disseminated by theglutinonsi envelops. The result is that practically every particle ofthe gluten, the most important constituent of the flour, is brought intothe condition required for making wholesome bread, and this gluten, inits elastic tenacious condition, due to perfect hydration, is formedabout each and every particle of yeast. -Inother words, We secure in afew minutes such a mingling of the several elements of the dough as hasnever heretofore been attained and which has only been approximated bythe slow and tedious methods heretofore followed; and our inventionfurther consists in a process of treating 01' manipulating dough afterit has beenformed' be the most approved manner of carrying out.

our invention.

Ne place the flour, yeast, lard, and other desired ingredients togetherand add thereto about thirty-eight per cent. more water-than.

has heretofore been customarythat is, we use about eighteen gallons ofwater for each one hundred and ninety-six'pounds of flour,

whereas the usual practice has been to employ about thirteen gallonswater for the same amount ofv flour. All of these ingredients in anunmixed condition are placed in a machinewhich preferably consists of avessel adapted to contain the ingredients and the dough as it is made,and in which vessel is arranged a horizontal rotary beaterthat is, abeater having a series of beater bars or blades parallel orapproximately parallel with the axis of rotation of the heater and whichis so geared as to be driven at high speed, a'

speed sufliciently great to cause the dough being formed to be carriedaround by the arms or bars of the heater and to be acted upon thereby ina manner to be described.

The materials being thus placed in the machine the beater is run at highspeed and in a short time (about a minute) they are so mixed as toproduce amass of -moist dough, but rough in appearance and having verylittle tenacity. The rotation of the beater continuing causes'a seriesof rapidly-recurring cycles of agitation in this mass, breaking it upinto minor masses, which are thrown about by the centrifugal action ofthe beater, and this condition continues for five or six minutes. afterthe apparatus is started. The operation of l the machine beingcontinued, it will soon be noticed that the minor masses of dough intowhich the main mass was broken up, as before described, begin to adherewith each other and with the main mass to a greater and greater extent,showing a rapid development'of the glutinous condition of the dough,

due to the more and more perfect hydration of the gluten. At about thisstage in the proc ess there occurs a very complete and rapid breaking upor disintegration of the little clusters or nodules of mutually-adheringunmixed particles of flour, and the dough begins to become so tenaciousand elastic as to permit it to extend from bar to bar of the beater instrings, folds, sheets, and membranes, the centrifugal effect of thebeater causing the dough to be worked almost wholly by the peripheral orouter bars of the beater and against the walls of the casing or vessel,such walls tending to retard the movement of the dough, while theblades, rapidly revolving, draw it out into thin sheets and membranes,which are carried around by the beater and folded one upon anotheruntil, accumulating in sheets, these are thrown 0E by the centrifugalaction against the walls of the vessel, to be again caught up andshredded and-sheeted by the blades. This operation iscontinued for abouttwenty minutes from the starting of the apparatus, at which time thedough is of a perfectly homogenous texture.

During the drawing out of the dough into sheets,'men1branes, shreds,andfiber-like submasses and again uniting theseby folding one sheet uponanother air is inclosed between the folded sheets or membranes, andbeing confined by the tenacious glutinous condition of the doughis'worked through the entire mass, so that the dough formed by ourprocess becomes thoroughly aerated simultaneously with the mixingoperations;

before described, is'preferably put into a trough or receptacle andallowed to stand for an hour or a little more for the yeast to de velop,when it may be molded and baked. The dough may, however, be permitted tostand for a considerable time without injury, due to the perfectdissemination of the yeast throughout the mass and the complete hydration of the gluten, so that each particle of yeast is surrounded bya tenacious glutinous envelop, which causes a uniform pressure of theexpanding gas throughout the entire mass, with no excessive pressure atany point due to a local overactivity of the ferment and to aninsufficiently tenacious gluten wall to confine the gas. There is alsono portion of the dough remaining unleavened and heavy, and the shortertime required for raising the dough diminishes the products of bacterialgrowth and the formation of acids is kept at a minimum and the danger ofspoiling the dough and ruining the bread is avoided. The baked breadfrom this dough is thoroughly light and uniformly porous and isunusually white in appearance as compared with breads made by the commonprocess, particularly when made from the higher grades of wheat-flour,this latter characteristic being also present in a marked degree in thedough made according to ourprocess, which is strikingly whiter than thedoughs made according to the usual method (reference again being madeparticu-. larly to doughs made from good wheat-flour.) Anothercharacteristic of our dough is its great strength, incident, of course,to the perfect development of the gluten, which enables it, even whenmade very soft, to retain its shape when subdivided and when molded,which characteristic is of great importance, as tending to facilitatethe making of uniformly and well shaped loaves. Another and a strikingresult of our process is the increased output of bread which can be madefrom a given amount of fiour, which amounts when using certain grades offlour to no less than from twenty (20) to thirty (30) more pound loavesof bread from a single barrel of flour than is possible to obtainaccording to the old method of procedure. This is due to the fact thatthere is practically no unhydrated gluten left in the dough and bread,all having entered into union with the water supplied at the initialmixing of the ingredients. This does not mean that water is injectedinto the dough or added thereto as an adulterant, which would make asloppy dough difficult or impossible to handle if proceeding accordingto the old methods, since it (the water) has as such disappeared and isunited with the gluten or other ingredients of the dough. According tosome authorities there is a considerable loss in the valuable andnutritive elements of the flour during its fermentation according to theusual methods of procedure, and that this loss is especially large inthe nitrogenous parts of the flour, and that the longer the period offermentation the greater the loss. By our process hereinbeforedescribed, where the period of fermentation may be reduced to a markeddegree, only from a third to a tenth as much time being required as whenproceeding according to the usual methods, there is a great saving inthe valuable properties of the flour, as there is little, if any,breaking down or deco-n1- position of the nitrogenous elements of theflour taking place so shortly after the initial mixing of the dough.

In another application forpatent, Serial No. 659,109, filed November 19,1897, and of which case this is a divisional application, we have showna machine which is especially adapted for the working of the processherein described and claimed. WVe do not,however,limitthe'inventionwhich forms the subject-matter of this case to its being carried out orworked by the particular apparatus shown in the aforesaid application,as it is evident that it may be'carried out by machines or apparatusdiffering more or less therefrom. We prefer, however, a machine similarto that shown in said application and described in its more generalfeatures in this specification, as by means thereof we are permitted towork the entire process herein described in one machine and as acontinuous operation from the first agitation of the unmixed ingredientsto the complete formation of a homogeneous dough, the machine thusserving first as a mixer to bring the ingredients into the condition ofa coherent mass,and after this has been accomplished operating to drawout, shred, and sheet the dough mass, as hereinbefore described.

\Vhile we have spoken of the part of the apparatus herein referred towhich effects the drawing out, shredding, and sheeting of 'the dough asa beater, we wish to be understood as using this term as descriptive ofa part of an organized apparatus and not as specifically descriptive ofsuch part, as it is not primarily the function of this part to act uponthe dough with successive blows or impacts, but, rather, to operate as ameans or agency for effecting the drawing out and sheeting operationshereinbefore referred to.

We do not in this application claim the process of making ormanipulating dough which consists in first mixing the dough ingredientsto form them into a coherent mass, then allowing such mass to stand andbe lightened by the action of the yeast or leaven, and then subjectingit to operations which draw out, shred, and sheet it, as such specificprocess forms the subject-matter of another application, filed by us onthe 6th day of June, 1899, Serial No. 719,589, preferring herein toclaim only those features of invention which are common or generic tothe process described in this case and to that of the lastreferred-toapplication and to those features which are specific to the process setforth in detail herein.

Having thus described ourinvention, what we claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patcut, is-- 1. Intheartofmaking'd'oughforferrnentedi bread,the herein-described process, which? consists in intermingling theconstituents of the dough to form a coherent mass, and, after; such masshas been. formed, rapidly'drawing out or separating from the maindo'ughm'ass portion after portion of such mass, and again' combinin gsuch portions with the mainmass, and continuing such operationsuntil thesaid; draw out portions assume sheet 4 like and:

shred-like forms of great tenacity, and capalole of being drawn intomembranes, sheets, and shreds of extreme thinness,,substantially-v asset forth.

2. In the art of making dough for fermented or leavened bread, theherein-described process, which consists in completing the interminglingand combination of substantially all of the gluten of the flour withwater, prior to.

the breaking down or decomposition of the nitrogenous elements of theflour, and simultaneously disseminating the yeast, whereby there iseffected acomplete hydration of the gluten and dissemination of theyeast therein and therethrough, while the gl utenretains its fullstrength, substantially as set-forth.

3. In the art of making dough for fermented or leavened bread, theherein-described process, which consists in mechanically bringing intocontact and. union with the water all of the gluten particles of theflour, thereby completing. the hydration of the gluten, and'siinulta-neously disseminating the yeast or ferment within the saidhydrated gluten, at one initial operation, and prior to the dough bein gallowed to rise under the influence of the.

yeast or ferment, substantially as set forth.

4. In the art of making do ugh for fe rmented orleavened bread, theherein-described meth- 0d of mixing the dough ingredients andhydratingsubstantially all of the glutinous constituents of the floursimultaneously and at one initial operation, prior to the dough beingallowed to rise under the influence of the yeastor ferment, whichconsists in repeatedly shredding or drawing out into shred, sheet, ormembranous form of extreme thinness, the mass of dough, and recombiningthe portions thus shredded or sheeted, substantially as set forth.

5. In the art of making dough for fermented or leavened bread, theherein-described process of mixing the ingredients and hydratingsubstantially all the glutinous constituents of the flour at one initialoperation which consists in repeatedly shredding or drawing out the massof doughinto sheet or membranous form, and, when the dough has becomehighly tenacious through the hydration of the gluten,

folding such sheets or membranes one upon another, thereby confining airbetween them, and recombining them into the mass of the dough, whereby,during such initial mixing process, the entire mass becomes aerated,sub-

= Lstantially as set forth.

6] I'n'the art of making dough for fermented .orleavene d bread, theherein-described process, consisting, first, in mingling together theingredients of the dough to form a coherent mass, second, in rapidlymoving theImass', or. portions thereof successively, aroundan axis. ofrotation, with acentrifugal speed,

u til sheets orQshred-like subma'sses are produced, third, inrecombining the said sheets or submasses'into a general dough mass, and,

fourth,continuing the said sheeting and shredding and recombiningoperations rapidly, to, completely and quickly distribute the yeast orferment and hydrate'the gluten,sub-

stantially asset forth.

7. ,In the art of making dough, the hereinvdescribed process, consistingfirst in mingling together theingredients of the dough and par- .tiallyhydrating the gluten,forminga coher- 'ent donghmas's, and then causingthe said mass, or portions thereof, to move rapidly.

around an axis ofrotation with a centrifugal speed, and throwing off, bycentrifugal force, masses or portions of the dough, recombining theseinto the general dough mass, and repeatingsaid operations to completethe hydra- 7 tion of the gluten, substantially asset forth.

8. 'In the art of making dough for fermented or leavened bread, theherein-described process, which consists in mixingthe flour and wa- Iter, with the other ingredients of the dough, in the proportions of onehundred and ninetysix pounds of fiour to approximately eighteen gallonsof water, and then, after they have become a coherent mass, completingthe hydration of substantially all the gluten and simul taneouslydisseminating the yeast or ferment, within this hydrated gluten at oneinitial and continuous operation, and prior to the dough being allowedto rise under the influence of the yeast or ferment,substantially as setforth.

9. In the art of making dough'for fermented.

or decompositionot the nitrogenous elements of the flour takes placeunder the action of the ferment, substantially as set forth.

WILLIAM S. COREY.

CHARLES I. COREY. Witnesses:

J. S. BARKER,

Gno. R. LINKINS.

